Bird Lists

Making the list. (Photo: Harry Hull)

Bird Lists are a big part of birding. In fact, “listing” is such an enjoyable part of birding that many birders are more interested in their list(s) than other components of the sport such as travel, camaraderie, watching bird behaviors or even actually identifying a species on their own! Keeping lists makes birding more interesting for these birders and most of them have a Life List (includes all bird species they have ever seen and/or heard), Year List (all birds seen or heard in a calendar year), Yard List (all birds ever seen or heard on their property), and so on.

Even for those of us who identify ourselves as indifferent listers, however, we really do want to know–way, deep down–how many different kinds of birds we have ever seen. So below are links to some useful bird lists for our area as well as for Costa Rica as a whole. For some of our other recommended birding sites, there are no official “master lists” available so we have listed just the “specialty” birds that the site is particularly noted for, not all the species one might encounter.

With the exception of Finca Cántaros, all the areas below are also eBird “Hotspots”; so if you’re interested in finding out more about what others have reported seeing in those places, read our helpful eBird “tutorial” here.

OTS/Las Cruces Biological Station/Wilson Botanical Garden. Click here for their master list which pretty well covers all the birds (400+ species) in the San Vito area along with annotated codes indicating whether the bird is common, uncommon, rare, seasonal, etc.
Finca Cántaros, a great birding spot between San Vito and Las Cruces Biological Station. The owners have maintained a list since 1995 with contributions from many people who have visited this extraordinary site plus species data generated by the Avian Monitoring Project. Click here for their complete list; but the most interesting species to be found here, some seasonally, are:

Masked Duck
White-throated Crake
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
Scaled Pigeon
Gray-chested Dove
Ruddy Quail-Dove
Blue-headed Parrot
Charming Hummingbird
Garden Emerald
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
Collared Trogon
Fiery-billed Aracari
Orange-collared Manakin
Rufous-breasted Wren
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush
Speckled Tanager
Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
Streaked Saltator
Rio Negro is a patch of secondary forest near the town of Sabalito about 15-20 minutes north of San Vito. It is owned by a local coffee producer and features the much-sought-after Lance-tailed Manakin as well as these other interesting species:

Bicolored Hawk
Scaled Pigeon
Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
White-tailed Emerald
Sepia-capped Flycatcher
Lance-tailed Manakin
Rufous-breasted Wren
Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush
Speckled Tanager
White-winged Tanager
Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
Streaked Saltator
La Gamba Road is about an hour southwest of San Vito, at sea level. Over many visits there, these are the species that we particularly look for:

Brown-throated Parakeet
Veraguan Mango
Red-rumped Woodpecker
Pale-breasted Spinetail
Forked-tailed Flycatcher
White-collared Seedeater
Yellow-bellied Seedeater
Ruddy-breasted Seedeater
Red-breasted Blackbird
Thick-billed Euphonia
Rusty-margined Flycatcher
The San Joaquin Wetlands are near the airstrip just outside of San Vito on the road to Sabalito. For a complete list of species seen over the years, click here and scroll down to the San Joaquin list. But over many visits there, these are the species that we particularly look for:

Masked Duck
White-throated Crake
Purple Gallinule
Great Blue Heron
Amazon Kingfisher
Northern Jacana
Pale-breasted Spinetail
Bran-colored Flycatcher
Rufous-breasted Wren
Chiriqui Yellowthroat
Ruddy-breasted Seedeater
Yellow-bellied Seedeater
Streaked Saltator